Beginner´s Guide to Learning Italian – Part. 4
The Dialects of the Italian Language
When dining in Italy, there is one thing you will notice right off la cucina locale, which means the local cuisine. This is not unlike here in our own country. If you live in Texas, you will find on the menu of most restaurants an entrée called “Chicken Fried Steak”. Once you cross the Texas state border, you will not find “Chicken Fried Steak” almost anywhere else in the country. In Italy every region has their own specialty and methods of preparing the dish, which will depend on the season, the local produce and any other ingredients. So it stands to reason most regions have their own accent, dialect and sometimes their own language.
The various languages and dialects have evolved over centuries and remained distinct from the standard Italian for several reasons, such as the inability to travel, no radio or TV until the twentieth century and the attempt to maintain their cultural heritage and independence.
The dialects have many distinct qualities, which distinguish them from others. Just as an example the Neapolitan dialect is the most widely known because of its use in popular songs. The speakers of this dialect clip the articles to single vowels. In Romanesco the letter “r” replaces the letter “l”, so instead of pronouncing the word volta meaning once, they would pronounce the word as vorta.
In all the regions of Italy schoolchildren learn the standard Italian and sometimes their regional dialect also. What is now known as the standard Italian has evolved from the Tuscan dialect it started from to the common language of Italy.
Traveling in Italy and other Countries
If you visit Italy and don’t speak Italian, it will appear as if everyone speaks Italian but you. That is not necessarily true. There are several languages spoken in Italy other than Italian along with several dialects of Italian.
Most regions have their own dialect, accent and even their own language. The languages spoken in Italy have evolved over the centuries. The different dialects are all noticeably different from the standard Italy.
Italian is known as an Indo-European language and currently there are over 55 million speakers of Italian in Italy. Some of the individuals are bilingual in Italian and some of the regional dialects. There are an additional 6.5 million people who speak Italian in other countries.
Besides Italy, Italian in spoken in several countries, which include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, and Vatican State.
There are several regional dialects spoken in Italy. The major dialects of Italian include toscano, abruzzese, pugliese, umbro, laziale, marchigiano centrale, cicolano-reatino-aquilano, and molisano.
Because of the different regions of Italy, there are also different languages spoken in Italy other than the standard Italian. Those languages include emiliano-romagnolo, friulano, ligure, Lombardo, napoletano, plemontese, sardarese, sardu, siciliano and Veneto. Some of these languages are known by different names, which are not listed here.
You are What You Speak
When you are listening to two people speak a foreign language, does it seem they are able to rattle off words at about 78 rpm? You feel like you are doing well at speaking about 33 rpm. Research was published in the January, 2000 issue of Nature Neuroscience. The findings of this research stated the primary language a person is raised with affects the way he or she thinks and processes information. Italian and British college students were studied and it was found the Italians read and process information faster, even when reading words from other languages.
These findings were of no great surprise to language experts who have stated for years that our primary language forms our minds and our perceptions. As an example western language is written and read from left to right and from top to bottom. It is believed that a Westerner will look a photograph starting with the top and moving downward to the bottom, where as people from Asian nations, who read from right to left and from bottom to the top process visuals differently than the Westerners.
The major breakthrough in this research, which was performed by Italian and British scientists, was that it brought what is believed to be the first proof that language has an impact on our brain physiology. The brain scans of the student showed Italians to have more active superior temporal regions, while the British have more active frontal and posterior inferior temporal regions.
The immediate importance of the study, according to the researchers, is in the teaching of the language and reading. They believe it to play a role in future anthropological research seeking to explain the differences between cultures.
Italian Survival Phrases
Greetings
This is the first category in the essential phrases for travelers.. Here are the greetings.
Salve! – Hello!
Pronto! – Hello! When you answer the phone
Ciao! – Hi! or bye, bye!
Buon giorno! –Good morning!
Buon pomeriggio – Good afternoon!
Buona sera! – Good evening!
Come sta? – How are you?
Come va? – How’re you doing?
Ci sentiamo bene – We’re feeling fine.
Grazie, va bene cosi – Thanks, just fine
Introductions
Another part of the essential phrases for travelers is the introduction. Here is a list of introductions in Italian along with the English counterpart.
Mi chiamo Michele – My name is Michael
Placere di conosceria – Pleased to meet you
Questa e mia moglie – This is my wife
Questo e mio marito – This is my husband
Come si chiama? – What is your name?
Di dov’e? – Where are you from?
Dove lavora? – Where do you work?
Che cosa studia? – What are you studying?
Lei abita qui? – Do you live here?
Siamo qui da una settimana – We’ve been here for a week
How to Ask Questions in Italian
Who is Carlo? Where is the bathroom? What time is it? Why do you run? How do you make pesto? This is a quick how to instruction on how to ask the right questions in Italian.
1.Questions asked beginning with a questioning word, the subject is usually placed at the end of the sentence. Example: Quando guarda la TV Michele? – When does Michael watch TV?
2.Chi? Means Who? Or Whom?
3.To ask Which (one) or Which (ones) use Quale? Or Quali? Plural
4.Che: means What? Or What kind of?
5.If you are asking about How much? Or How many? Use Quantro/a/i/e?
6.Come? Indicates How?
7.To ask Why? Us Perchae?
8.Quandro? (Che cosa e, cos’e) says in English What is…? In a request for a definition or an explanation.
9.Dove? means Where?
Here are a few tips when forming a question in Italian:
1.Che and cosa are abbreviated forms of che cosa. The forms are interchangeable.
2. As with all adjective, the questioning adjectives agrees in gender and number with the nouns they modify, except for che, which stays the same.
3.Prepositions such as a, di, con, and per always precede the questioning che. In Italian, a question will never end with a preposition.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment